Editing Shepseskaf (section)

===Activities===
Very few activities of Shepseskaf are known. The Palermo stone{{efn|group=note|name=Palermo}} reports that in the year of his accession to the throne he participated in the "going around the Two Lands" and a "festival of the diadem" during which two images of the god [[Wepwawet]] were fashioned and the gods who unite the two lands are said to have followed the king. These events occurred at or close to the coronation of the king.{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|p=79|loc=footnote 9}} The site of Shepseskaf's tomb, said to be a pyramid, was chosen that same year. On that occasion, an enclosure of Lebanese wood may have been set up to surround the perimeter of the part of the Saqqara [[necropolis]] where the tomb was to be constructed.{{sfn|Bogdanov|2020|p=132}} Finally Shepseskaf probably decreed a daily offering of 20 measures of something (what was offered is lost in a lacuna of the stone) to the {{transliteration|egy|senuti}} shrine.{{efn|group=note|{{transliteration|egy|Senuti}} shrine, transliteration {{transliteration|egy|snwt}}.{{sfn|Nuzzolo|Krejčí|2017|p=372}} This might designate a building perhaps marked by snake stelae, possibly at Heliopolis.{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|p=508}}}}{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|p=69}}
[[File:Babaef.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=a small white statue of a man striding|[[Alabaster]] statuette of [[Babaef II]], a [[Vizier (Ancient Egypt)|vizier]] of Shepseskaf, from his Giza tomb G5230, now in the [[Kunsthistorisches Museum]], Wien{{sfn|Kunsthistorisches Museum|2022|loc=Inv. 7785}}]]

It was during his second year of rule that Shepseskaf recorded the earliest surviving decree from the Old Kingdom period.{{sfn|Hsu|2012|pp=270 & 273}}{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|p=97}} Inscribed on a limestone slab uncovered in Menkaure's mortuary temple, the decree concerns the completion of this temple, records offerings to be made there and protects the estate and staff of the pyramid of Menkaure by exempting them from taxation:{{efn|group=note|The decree, now fragmentary and damaged, is currently housed in the [[Egyptian Museum]] under the temporary number 26.2.21.18.{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|p=97}}}}{{sfn|Katary|2001|p=352}}{{sfn|Sethe|1903|loc=§ 101|p=160}}

{{cquote|text=[[Horus]] Shepsesket, the year after the first occasion of the count of cattle and herds{{nbsp}}[...] which was done in the presence of the King himself. The King of Upper and Lower Egypt Shepseskaf. For the king of Upper and Lower Egypt [Menkaure] he set up a monument, a {{transliteration|egy|pekher}} offering{{nbsp}}[...] in the pyramid of Menkaure{{nbsp}}[...] With regard to the {{transliteration|egy|pekher}} offering brought for the king of Upper and Lower Egypt [Menkaure]{{nbsp}}[...] priestly duty [is done] with respect to it for ever.{{nbsp}}[...] [it should never be taken away by someone] in the course of his duty for ever{{nbsp}}[...] the pyramid of Menkaure{{nbsp}}[...]. My majesty does not permit{{nbsp}}[...] servants{{nbsp}}[...] priests{{nbsp}}[...]{{sfn|Strudwick|2005|pp=97–98}}}}

Excavations of Menkaure's mortuary temple confirm that it was probably left unfinished at this pharaoh's death. Originally planned to be made of granite, then altered to be completed of white [[Tura, Egypt|Turah limestone]],{{sfn|Reisner|1931|p=30}} all stone construction ceased and the temple was hastily finished in [[Mudbrick|crude brick]]s during Shepseskaf's rule.{{sfn|Lehner|2008|p=136}} This material allows for rapid construction.{{sfn|Reisner|1931|p=30}} Shepseskaf's works concerned the causeway and entrance corridors of the temple, its great open court, storerooms and inner temple as well as the exterior walls. All brick constructions were covered in yellow mud then plastered white and left plain, except for the walls of the great open court which were made into a system of niches.{{sfn|Reisner|1931|p=30}} The completed doorways were fitted with wooden doors and the temple floors were of beaten mud on packed limestone chips, while the great court received a stone flooring.{{sfn|Reisner|1931|pp=30–31}}

Further activities are reported in [[Herodotus]]' [[Histories (Herodotus)|account]] of the late fourth dynasty.{{sfn|Godley|1963|loc=Book II.136.1–4}} According to Herodotus, Menkaure was succeeded by a king, whom he calls Asukhis,{{efn|group=note|Also called Aseskaf or Asychis -- Ἄσυχις in Greek.{{sfn|Bérard|1937|p=289}}}} who built an outer court of Hephaestus's (Ptah's) temple, decreed a new law on borrowing to remedy the lack of money in circulation during his reign and built a brick pyramid.{{efn|group=note|Herodotus's account is as follows: "After Mycerinus, the priests said, Asukhis became king of Egypt. He built the eastern outer court of Hephaestus's temple; this is by far the finest and grandest of all the courts, for while all have carved figures and innumerable felicities of architecture, this court has far more than any. As not much money was in circulation during this king's reign, they told me, a law was made for the Egyptians' allowing a man to borrow on the security of his father's corpse; and the law also provided that the lender become master of the entire burial-vault of the borrower, and that the penalty for one giving this security, should he fail to repay the loan, was that he was not to be buried at his death either in that tomb of his fathers or in any other, nor was he to bury any relative of his there. Furthermore, in his desire to excel all who ruled Egypt before him, this king left a pyramid of brick to commemorate his name, on which is this writing, cut on a stone: 'Do not think me less than pyramids of stone; for I excel them as much as Zeus does other gods; for they stuck a pole down into a marsh and collected what mud clung to the pole, made bricks of it, and thus built me.' These were the acts of Asukhis."{{sfn|Godley|1963|loc=Book II.136.1–4}}}}{{sfn|Godley|1963|loc=Book II.136.1–4}} Herodotus's account cannot easily be reconciled with the historical reality and seems to stem from confusion between fourth and [[Twenty-fourth Dynasty of Egypt|24th dynasty]] rulers,{{sfn|Bérard|1937|p=291}} garbled references to legends regarding a [[Second Dynasty of Egypt|second dynasty]] king as lawgiver and [[Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt|12th dynasty]] brick pyramids of [[Dahshur]], such as [[Pyramid of Amenemhat III (Dahshur)|that]] of [[Amenemhat III]].{{sfn|How|Wells|1991|loc=II.136.1–4}} As [[Diodorus Siculus]] makes similar mistakes in reporting the history of the fourth dynasty{{snd}}notably, both he and Herodotus incorrectly believed the fourth dynasty came after the [[Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt|20th]]{{sfn|Bérard|1937|p=289}}{{snd}}it is possible that it was their sources in Egypt which were at fault.{{sfn|Bérard|1937|p=292}}